Control stick assemblies, commonly referred to as joysticks, are used to generate electrical signals representative of the direction of the movement of a movable actuator arm handle. Such joysticks are used as computer display cursor controls, radio controls for model airplanes and radio controlled toys and the like.
There are basically two varieties of joysticks. In the first variety, the actuator arm handle is typically connected to the input shafts of a pair of orthogonally positioned potentiometers or the like so that displacement of the actuator arm handle rotates one or both of the input shafts.
In the second variety, the joystick typically comprises four or more on-off switches. The actuator arm handle is connected to the switches so that sufficient displacement of the actuator arm handle activates one or more of the switches.
The second variety of joysticks are generally the variety that is used as display cursor controls for video games. With the increased interest in video games, there has become a constant commercial demand for reducing the production cost of video game computers and their accessories, which includes joysticks.